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Mindfulness

Laure with her feeling wheel's pillow

The Toll of the News on Our Mental Health [part 3/6]

“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” - Marcus Aurelius Welcome to the third article in the 6-part series on “The Toll of the News on Our Mental Health.” If you missed the first article, you can find it here. Today we’ll tackle a critical skill that can truly transform how we interact with the daily news: emotional self-regulation. This concept might sound formal, but it’s really about understanding and managing our emotional responses more effectively, especially when they’re triggered by negative news. Emotional self-regulation isn’t about suppressing your feelings or pretending they don’t exist. Far from it. It’s about recognizing your emotions, understanding their origins, and learning to direct them in a way that is healthy and...

Slow and steady wins the race

The Toll of the News on Our Mental Health [part 2/6]

Awareness of your news consumption Welcome to the second article in the 6-part series on “The Toll of the News on Our Mental Health.” If you missed the first article, you can find it here. Today, we dive into the foundational step of any change process: awareness. We’ll explore how becoming aware of our news consumption and its impact on our mental health is crucial for long-term habit change. While “awareness” might seem like a mundane topic, I assure you, it is perhaps the most critical step you can take. Without awareness, change is impossible. If you’re not conscious of your news consumption habits and the effects they have on your mental health, altering these patterns will be challenging. The journey towards change is beautifully illustrated in the poem...

The Hummingbird story

The Toll of the News on Our Mental Health [part 1/6]

I’ve always felt a deep compassion for the world and a strong sense of justice, which made me highly sensitive to news reports. I used to get triggered by news from around the globe, and even more when it concerned my home countries or ‘my people’, but feelings don’t have frontiers. The injustice, violence, and nonsensical political actions—it is overwhelming. But I’m not here to dwell on those issues. I’m here to share the choice we have in protecting our mental health amidst the chaos. There’s beauty in the world and good news too, if we choose to look for it.  One day, it all became ‘too much, too fast, too soon’ for me. I had to take a stand and change my habits. It wasn’t...

Mindfulness on-demand

Mindfulness On-Demand: Accessing Calm in the Heat of the Moment

I will always remember the day I truly experienced the power of mindfulness on-demand. It was one morning during the first few years of Covid, a time when anxiety was high for everyone. I live half a block away from a three-way stop where most cars barely pause, let alone stop completely. On this particular day, my anxiety was higher than usual, and I was terrified that a pedestrian trying to cross the street would get hit by one of those speeding cars. I went to the kitchen to share my worry with my partner, and his response was a simple, ‘Oh yes, for sure.’ Triggered by what I felt was a dismissive reply—compounded by my lifelong struggles with anxiety, depression, and trauma—I reacted almost immediately....

What is mindfulness? It’s not what you think it is! Interviewed by Heather Lee Chapman

Hi everyone! I don't share much but I should share what's happening in my business at least! Let me know if you want to see more, that might give me the push that I need I'd like to share this video-podcast where Heather Lee Chapman interviews me about my work with mindfulness, what I think about mindfulness and why it's so powerful and different than any other modalities. I talk about: what is mindfulness and what it is not, how mindfulness has helped me in my life, including one of my favorite quote! how mindfulness is a quality (embodiment) although it's taught as a practice, but it does start with practice mindfulness is "on-demand", that's one reason why it's so powerful and different from other forms...

Mindfulness, Full of Kindness on Radio Canada

Me and mindfulness are on Radio-Canada!

Last year, Alexandre Lamic from Radio-Canada contacted me to do a short video of me and my work teaching mindfulness to children and teens. I'm happy to share the final video :) it's very short, only 2 minutes, I have so much more to share! This is a start. It came out in July 2024, and it's already almost November. As you can tell I'm either busy or procrastinating, or both. I'm sorry. I'll try to do better. Here it is, in French. I'll do my best to share a translation soon. La pleine conscience, un moyen de réduire l’anxiété chez les jeunes https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2085865/pleine-conscience-meditation-sante-mentale...

Video: What is mindfulness and what it’s not

Discover: The definition of mindfulness How I describe mindfulness to kids What is mindfulness in practice? What mindfulness is not Differences between mindfulness for kids vs for adults   https://youtu.be/870KiAjN4dg?si=uFhM_M-PoXFZI2qx...

Mindfulness as a secular practice

Mindfulness is about noticing what is happening right now. In practice, mindfulness looks like observing our breath without changing it, noticing how our emotions (anger, joy…) feel like in the body, the mind, the heart, and eating with the 5 senses. Mindfulness has its origins in traditions and religions like Buddhism, Taoism, and Stoicism, but the practice of mindfulness as stated above does not make it religious. Many things have origins in traditions and religious but that doesn’t make them religious, for instance the Gregorian calendar that we use in the West does not make us all religious. Mindfulness as it is taught in the West has proven to have many benefits in our lives, and that is why it is now taught even in...